by Lars Gotrich

Next week, Ornette Coleman turns 80, and we're re-featuring Act Like You Know: Ornette Coleman at Take Five to celebrate. As the Internet is want to do, I got called out in the comments when the article was originally published:

I must disagree on Tone Dialing as the premium expression of Prime Time. The joyful Dancing in Your Head is indeed the supreme statement of skronk. This is closely followed by its contemporary, James "Blood" Ulmer's Tales of Captain Black, which features Ornette throughout. When these albums appeared, they were as remarkable as Ornette's first albums in terms of total newness. This simply had not been done before, combining the power of James Brown/Funkadelic groovaliciousness with the harmolodically driven search for melody. - Tom Dyer (Reptilicus)

 

I am rarely one to agree with the Internet — and don't take this as precedent, guys — but "Reptilicus" was so right that my free-jazz credentials were temporarily revoked and I had to suffer a root canal at the hands of Kenny G (a la Garth in Wayne's World). Somehow, Prime Time out-weirded-out Funkadelic and Parliament combined with Dancing in Your Head. But in my defense, Tone Dialing is a total mindwarp of an album, and having just heard it for the first time before writing the article, its effects hadn't quite worn off.

Check out an Ornette Coleman Prime Time live performance from 1986 above and then absorb "Street Blues" from Tone Dialing, and tell us what you think in the comments.